


All Stories Are The Same

by kay_emm_gee



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Mythology References, Orpheus and Eurydice Myth, Post-2x16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 17:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_emm_gee/pseuds/kay_emm_gee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Orpheus & Eurydice may have a second chance at happiness because nothing happens the same way twice.</p><p>Or maybe not, because the poets are often wrong, but not always, and in the end, all stories are the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Stories Are The Same

_Nothing happens the same way twice._

The poets got it wrong.

This time Orpheus doesn’t descend into the underworld to rescue his soul mate. No, her boot-clad feet are standing firmly above on the moss-covered ground when he slips into the darkness under the mountain. This Eurydice doesn’t need rescuing, not with her sharp tongue and even sharper mind. She had recognized the nest of mountain vipers for what they were before they could sink their teeth into her and draw blood, drain her dry, kill her. This Eurydice managed to get out all on her own, but at the cost of leaving her people behind.

So she asks Orpheus to go get them for her. And he does, because they are his people too and knows neither of them would survive that loss.

Though Orpheus may not being rescuing Eurydice, she is still in his thoughts when he descends. He thinks of her standing in the sunlight up above while navigating the subterranean labyrinth where despair drips heavily from the stone walls right along with the dank water. He thinks of her breathing in sharp cold air as his hands close around the guard’s neck, squeezing tightly until the face goes slack. He thinks of the way firelight danced over her scars that night after they reunited when he is sliding through the tunnel, flames licking at his back. He thinks of all the things she is doing up on the ground, because it reminds him that the rest of his people should be up there too, even if it puts the weight of more deaths on his back.

The poets got it wrong.

This time Eurydice is the one who goes down to the underworld to rescue her soul mate, but she doesn’t intend to go alone, because they defied expectations, defied the fates and made the alliance, even at the expense of one of their own. So Orpheus is expecting her to have an army at her back when he sees her again.

She is alone, though, when he opens the door and looks at her over his sister’s shoulder. Eurydice is alone, staring at him with apologetic, desperate, lost eyes, and he doesn’t know why.

She should have an army at her back, because he and their people deserve nothing less. She should have an army at her back, because vipers are tricky creatures, ready to strike the moment you look away, and that requires backup. She should have an army at her back, because that was the deal that was made.

But the deal got broken, and they are both paying the price (sometimes the poets get it a little bit right) as they pull the lever together.

The poets got it wrong.

This time Eurydice and Orpheus both make it out of the underworld, and they do it side by side. They walk in even steps, his a little slower than usual, hers a little faster, keeping pace with each other as they trek through the forest that is now as familiar to them as the scars on their skin. Always they are next to each other, even as the hours drag on and the sun arcs across the cloudless sky. For them there is no ahead and behind, no leading and being led. They are soul mates, partners, equals. They save each other, over and over and over again, always and forever together, and this time is no different.

Or at least that is what this Orpheus thinks as he waits outside the gate for Eurydice, smiling at the sight of their people finally being home.

Except sometimes the poets are right.

This time Orpheus still looks back. He looks back for her, to celebrate their victory, their survival, but the Eurydice he knows is not there. Instead, there is a ghost of a girl staring at him, her skin sickly pale and anguish in her glassy, dead eyes. Broken, whispered words tumble from her lips and are so fragile that they almost get lost on the wind. The edges of her begin to blur, disintegrate, because he can’t see straight, not when she is speaking like this, of leaving. He pleads with her, but her lips just press a cold, chilling kiss to his cheek and then she is gone.

The poets got it right this time.

This time Orpheus still looks back.

This time Eurydice still disappears.

The poets got it right.

_Nothing happens the same way twice, but all stories are the same._

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr (kay-emm-gee)!


End file.
